The Maze Runner : A different world
by mistymizz
Summary: This is a story about Thomas dealing with a little girl in the Ridge. If you like this chapter I'll continue with the story. But please let me know, so I can add more chapters. Contains some spanking of a minor. If you don't like these kind of stories please don't read. Thanks for the positive reviews so far! Appreciate it.
1. Chapter 1

Thomas turned to see what all the commotion was about. This was his fourth day here and already he had a sense of the chaos that existed within this new world that he had been thrown into. A dozen of the boys were standing below the tower, shielding their heads with whatever they could find for protection. Thomas squinted his eyes against the suns glare and looked up, shielding his eyes with his hand.

Saige. The young girl with an attitude was right on top. She was throwing rocks at everyone below and yelling for them to leave her alone. Thomas walked up to Jeremy who was yelling for her to stop throwing rocks and to get her butt down to take her punishment.

'What's going on?'

Ducking from another rock going past his head, Jeremy frowned and said, 'Little brat left her bed last night and practically destroyed Scotty's diary. I'm throwing her into the pit for the night and she won't come down from there.

The pit was a big hole dug into the ground with a caged door made of wood, built to keep people in. It was dark and dirty in there and was used as a punishment for anyone who broke the maze laws or any acts of indiscipline. Thomas instinctively decided to take charge of the situation.

'Let me take care of this one', Thomas made his way to the first ladder.

A rock came flying past his head and hit him square on the shoulder. 'Oof! Hey Saige. I'm coming up there ok? Just to talk. No more rocks, ok?'

Thomas made his way up slowly, looking up and making sure no rocks were coming towards him. He opened the trap door at the top. Saige was sitting there. Staring at him, sweaty, dirty and pointing a knife at his face.

Slowly Thomas made his way out of the trap and up right where Saige was sitting. He put out his hand to keep her calm. Saige was breathing hard. She had been crying, there were dirty trails of tears all over her face.

'I'm not going into the pit.'

'Did you mess up Scotty's diary?'

'What if I did? He stomped on my hand yesterday, in the garden when we were planting bulbs and I know he did it on purpose.'

'Saige, I was there when it happened and it was an accident. He said he was sorry and you know you had no right to touch his diary let alone destroy it. Now, let's not make this any worse than it is. Come on, give me the knife.'

Saige waved her shaking hand, wielding the knife and keeping Thomas away at arm's length. Brodie watching from below took that moment to distract Saige's attention. 'Saige!', he yelled while banging the side of the tower as hard as he could with his wooden shield.

Saige turned at the noise and not wasting his chance, Thomas dove right at her and grabbed the knife, twisting it away from her little hands. 'Hey', yelled Saige in anger. 'Give me that!', she fought to grab the knife back but was quickly subdued by Thomas as he threw her onto her stomach and sat over her body, holding her hands behind her back in a tight grip. Bringing his face down so that his mouth was right next to her ear, he threatened in a deep almost whispered commanding voice, 'Don't you ever wave a knife in my face again. You hear me?'

'YOU HEAR ME?'

Saige nodded her head and still struggling yelled, 'Yes!'

Grabbing her arm, Thomas made Saige get up on her feet. Putting the knife away, he turned her around to face the trap door. 'Go on. Get moving!' Saige hesitated. Whack! Thomas spanked her bottom hard. 'Ow!', Saige turned. 'That hurt!'

'Start moving Saige', Thomas guided her to the first step going down.

'She's coming down Brodie.', Thomas followed Saige as she made her way to the ground.

Brodie held onto her once she got down. Thomas jumped off the last step, turned and bent down to Saige's eye level.

'You are going to march yourself over to the pit, get inside and stay there until tomorrow. No dinner. That is your punishment for what you did to Scotty, throwing rocks and wielding the knife at me. Understand?'

Pushing Thomas away by placing her hands on his shoulders, she screamed, 'NO!', and turned to run. Thomas quickly grabbed hold of the screaming girl. He lifted her off her feet and carried her struggling and kicking to the pit. Pushing her inside, Thomas closed the pit with the barricade and secured it in the lock position. Saige continued to scream and pulled at the door with her hands. After ten minutes of continuous screaming she sat down and started kicking at the door, yelling obscenities.

Thomas waited and when the tantrum didn't subside, he walked up to the pit and yelled, 'HEY! Do you want me to come in there?'

' I'll kill you when I get out. You and anyone else who keeps telling me what to do!'

Brodie raised his eyebrows in surprise at where this was going.

Thomas sighed. The entire pack of young ones were watching. If he didn't nip this in the bud now, they would all think it was ok to do and behave however they wanted.

Grabbing a switch from the bunch lying on the ground for the cooking fire, Thomas opened the pit door and jumped inside.

'I'm sorry. What was that you just said?'

Saige scrambled to her feet.

'You're not allowed to beat us kids'.

'Oh, I'm not here to give you a beating, but you are about to get a good switching….. and you are NEVER going to threaten me or anyone else here like that ever again, understand?'

Saige turned to get out of the pit, but Thomas grabbed her pants from behind and putting his left leg up on the ledge, pulled her over it and brought his hand down hard. 'Swish! Swish!', the switch made a sound every time it came down, followed by a loud screech.

He brought the switch down a dozen times across her legging clad bottom. The screaming turned to cries which turned to whimpers and then sorry's. Throwing the switch down, Thomas pulled Saige up and turned her to face him. 'I don't ever want to do this again Saige? From now on, you are going to listen to anything I or anyone older says, you got that?' He knelt down so that they were looking eye level at each other.

She nodded her head and then buried her face in his chest, crying out the tears of frustration and fear that she had kept inside her while here at the Ridge. Thomas held her tight and rubbed her back while he let her cry it out.

'I'm going to leave you now Saige. You still have your night in the pit to get over with and tomorrow we start fresh, ok?'

Saige nodded. Rubbing her behind, Saige settled quietly into a corner for the night.

At around mid-night, Thomas quietly made his way to check on Saige. She was fast asleep on her stomach, using her arm as a pillow. Brodie joined him.

'That was long overdue what you did mate. Saige was starting to go over the edge with her behaviour.'

'Brodie, tomorrow we start cleaning things up around here. The young ones run around with no supervision or responsibilities. We can't let that go on the way it has. We have to turn the Ridge into a working community with discipline and order. That is the only way we can survive.'


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Ridge was their home. They were the ones stranded here after the apocalypse. 23 of them to be exact. They spent the first couple of weeks getting organized, planting vegetable seeds for food and making shelter out of wood planks and any old material they found.

Arguments and fights followed by bloody noses and formations of different groups quickly made way for the need to have a good leader. Intelligent, diplomatic and tough – Thomas filled the shoes of a very capable young man in charge. He had to fight for it and in the end won everybody's respect as well.

He also had a vision. One to get the group to start their trek soon before winter set in to find more survivors. There had to be more than just the 23.

Thomas looked around the ridge from top of the tower. He could see for miles around. Nothing but patches of forest mixed with flattened and burnt landscapes. No tell tale signs of life either.

The other 22 survivors were a mix of older teens and young ones. The youngest was Sam who at the age of 7 quietly followed his older sister Kaya around. The oldest was Glader. At 23 he was the Doctor at the Ridge, having finished a few years of medical school. Newt was Thomas's right hand and friend. Gully was the only one who would oppose Thomas at times, but that was good. It kept everyone in check.

Then there was Saige. She was ten at the most, small for her size but feisty and ready to pounce on anyone who made her angry. Which was often. After the incident at the tower with the knife, Thomas ended up spanking her.

The next morning he pulled her out of the pit for a long talk. Who was she and why did she have that massive chip on her shoulder?

Saige very reluctantly let out a few details about herself. Thomas had walked her to the food tent, where she had some fruit and juice. Her first meal after being punished. Sitting opposite her and helping himself to some grapes, Thomas asked Saige about her family.

'I never had a family. I lived in the Home for abandoned kids.'

'You mean, 'Rainbow House? The one by Elliot lake?', asked Thomas.

'Yes. When the end came, I was in the basement detention room. Everyone else died but me. I crawled out of an opening and made my way to the city square and then ended up here with the other kids when they rounded us up.' She stuffed her mouth with a huge bite of an apple and sat with one leg up on the bench and the other dangling freely, kicking it every thirty seconds into the table leg.

'So you want to tell me why you get so mad with everyone all the time?'

She shrugged her shoulders. 'That's everyone else's problem, not mine'.

Raising his eyebrow at her, Thomas moved her plate away and looking into her eyes he said, 'No little girl, it is your problem, and if you need help getting your attitude adjusted, you just remember the spanking you got last night.'

Saige pulled her plate back and took a handful of orange slices.

Just then, Jake came running into the tent. 'Thomas, we need you at the comm.'

The 'Comm', was what they called the communication tent. It had some working equipment set to look for any sign of outside communication. Thomas got up and told Saige they would continue their little 'talk' later.

At the Comm the machine was beeping like crazy. Thomas listened on the headphones and could make out some beeps that came at regular intervals. Until now it was just static. So beeps could mean a good thing. Hopefully.

'Jake, I want shifts in here listening to this. The minute there is a change in the pattern, let me know.'

'You got it Chief!', answered Jake.

A week later, the beeps turned to bleeps and ringtones. Someone was trying to make contact.

Saige POV

It had been a couple of weeks since the incident with Thomas. They never did finish their 'little talk' at the breakfast table.

Saige hated the pit. It reminded her of the basement dungeon room she was often sent to at the orphanage.

She had had a tough life. Abandoned at the home when she was a baby, she battled everyday to get her fair share of food, avoid being beaten up by older bullies and learning how to fight for survival. She was good with her fists, fast on her feet and was very street smart. Her mouth and attitude often got her into trouble.

The Ridge did not appeal to Saige at all. She wanted to leave. At first the shock of how she survived the apocalypse and made it here kept her going. But now, she was bored, hated the routine and all of the bossing around. 'Saige do this, Saige do that, dig this, plant that, clean that mess up, help in the food tent, wash the plates', it was just non-stop.

After watching the general movements of everyone, Saige came up with a plan.

No one was allowed outside the walls of the Ridge, except Alby and the security team. Alby headed the team and he took three of the older males with him every four hours to do a run around the Ridge. They looked for any signs of life and checked the perimeter for any changes that could signal danger.

The gates were opened and closed quickly. The runs were done at 8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm, 12am and 4am. It took them about an hour each time.

Saige decided the 4am run would be best. She could easily hide in the dark, no one would have a clue that she would even be awake at that time and she would have a good four hours ahead of anyone coming to look for her. If they did that is. They might just agree to let her get lost and die if that was the safe thing to do for everyone else. But Saige has plans to survive. Get to a place where she could roam around freely and do what she wanted.

Everyone went to bed that night, tired after an entire day of hard work. It was the end of Summer and still hot.

Saige drank a lot of water and went to bed knowing she would have to get up to use the bathroom. Then she would stay awake till 4.

The next morning at the Ridge

The young ones after breakfast had duties like taking care that the sheep and cows were fed and the area around them cleaned. They had to fill the water trough and get hay from the small field at the far end of the Ridge. Kaya was in charge of them and their duty roster. Today, everyone checked in except Saige.

Kaya checked the food tent, the sleeping tent for the young ones and then walked back to the animal corral just in case she missed Saige the first time around. Nope, she was not there. No one had seen her since last night.

Sam had the bed next to Saige and might know what was going on.

'Sam, did you see where Saige went after she got up?'

'She was up before I was. Didn't see her this morning.'

'Hmm. Ok, that is weird. Where did she go?' Kaya even checked the pit. Nope she wasn't there either.

Kaya went to the main tent where Thomas and the council would be. 'Hey Thomas, anyone here see Saige today?'

'Nope, haven't seen her, why?'

'She is just not anywhere. I've looked everywhere and no one I spoke to has seen her since last night.'

'She is probably sulking somewhere. Alby, get the team out and find her. Bring her to me when you do. I've had it with her nonsense.'

Saige POV

Saige had escaped successfully. No one saw her or had a clue. She first made her way through the flat land to get some space between her and the Ridge fast. Then she made her way into the first forested area to find a place to get some sleep.

She climbed up a tree and got comfortable on a wide branch. She had done this a few times before so she knew what she was doing.

Back at the Ridge

Thomas had the Ridge on alert. Saige was officially missing. Every inch of space was checked and she was nowhere to be found.

He called for an emergency council meeting.

Alby started with, 'Do you think she sneaked out?'

'That is what it looks like right now. Her backpack is missing as well as some food and a couple of water canteens. Newt said his knife is missing. Let's assume she's run away. What do we do, go after her?'

'I say leave her. Who cares.' said Newt angrily. That was a knife with sentimental value.

Thomas took his time to think. He paced around the front of the council and then put his hands down on the map they had of the Ridge and the outside as far as they had ventured.

He took some chalk and drew a circle around the map, and said, 'Let's search within this area. If she is here, we bring her back. If we don't find her, we let her go. Do we take a vote?'

Everyone voted affirmative.

Twenty minutes later, 12 members spread out to look for Saige. Each group of four had one security team member with them as they knew the area well.

'I found something!', yelled Curt. The others quickly went to see what he found. 'Her footprint. Looks like she tried to avoid leaving prints by walking on the rocks, but her foot must have slipped here. See the grooves of her Converse shoes?'

Thomas looked ahead. He knew where she went. The forest.

Saive POV

Saige heard a rustling. She had some sleep and was now back on the ground, but hiding because of the unfamiliar noise. She took one step to the left to turn when someone clasped their hand across her mouth. She screamed into the hand and kicked out her legs.

'I'm going to remove my hand from your mouth. You will not make a sound, is that clear? Nod if you understand.' growled a new voice.

She nodded.

She was forcibly turned around. There were about five young men in front of her, all looking tired and dirty.

'Are you with anyone else?'

'No. I'm by myself', answered Saige.

'Are you from anywhere here?', the tallest one asked as he grabbed her backpack.

'Hey!', yelled Saige as she tried to grab it back. One of the others grabbed her arms and held it behind her back.

Opening and dumping the contents of her bag to the ground, the tall one said, 'Where did you get all this food?'

When she didn't answer, he yanked her head back, pulling her hair. 'I asked you a question. Where did you get this food from?'

'From the Ridge'. She pointed in the general direction of where she had come from.

'Take us there. How many of you are there?', asked the blonde one.

'23'.

The food from her backpack was quickly devoured by the five.

Saige made her way back to the Ridge grudgingly. She couldn't believe her rotten luck.

Back at the Ridge

The search party was back at the Ridge. They decided to come back for more water and food before heading out to the forest to look for Saige again.

From the tower Damon yelled out, 'Thomas, I see some people! Oh my God…I see some people!'

Thomas and the others quickly ran to the weapons tent and got spears and shields in case they needed them.

Thomas then made his way up the tower and yelled out, 'Stop. Who are you and what do you want?'

Thomas then looked closely at the approaching group. Saige was with them.

The blonde one yelled back at Thomas, 'We're a group of survivors and we're the search team for food. The others are back at the cave. We don't mean any harm.'

Saige took this moment to try and run for it. She certainly didn't want to be back here!

'Get her!' yelled Damon. Thomas was already making his way down the tower to open the gates.

Saige was grabbed and carried back to the Ridge by one of the five. She screamed and lashed out her fists to get free, but she didn't have a chance against a six foot twenty year old.

Thomas introduced himself and then shook hands with the tall one. 'I'm Harry, this is Nate (the blonde one), Lucas (light brown hair and dimples when he smiled), Liam (dark brown hair and grey eyes) and Zach (the darkest hair and angry eyes. He was the one who was holding onto Saige right now)

'I believe this one is yours', said Zach putting Saige down on her feet and pushing her towards Thomas.

'Let me go!', Saige yelled.

Thomas grabbed Saige by the front her shirt. Jerking her towards him, he growled, 'Do you know how much trouble you're in right now?'

He then let her go and looked at Newt. 'Put her in the pit till I decide what to do with her'.

'NO!', screamed Saige. 'Not the pit! Please….'.

Thomas motioned with his head for Newt to get going. Dragging the screaming girl behind him, Newt took Saige to the pit and pushed her in. Closing the door behind him, Newt remembered his knife. He reached in, and pulled Saige by the seat of her pants. Once he could reach, he put his hand in her pocket and took out his knife. 'Thank you very much!' he said with a cheeky smile as he closed the door for the final time that night.

Thomas found out from the five that there were another 17 survivors at the cave where they temporarily lived. Harry said the Ridge was much safer. So they planned for Lucas, Harry and Zach to go and bring the others back. Nate and Liam stayed back to fill Thomas and the council in on what they knew of the outside world.

Saige POV

Saige knew from last time not to throw a tantrum and scream. She didn't want Thomas to come in the pit again.

She wondered what he would do to her though. He really looked pissed.

Thomas POV

Later that evening, Thomas thought about Saige. He had to punish her. He could not have her or anyone else think they could just leave and endanger everyone else.

Taking Saige out of the pit, Thomas took Saige back to her tent.

'Sam and Kit, finish your reading back at the food tent. Saige and I are going to have a little talk and we need some privacy.'

Both the little ones looked at Saige startled. They found her! But now it looked like she was in big trouble.

Thomas pushed Saige to sit on her bed. He turned to look at her and then he let her have it. Yelling in a forceful and loud voice, he growled, 'I don't even know where to begin Saige! You run away and then end up bringing some total strangers back to the Ridge? What if they wanted to attack us Saige? All of us could be dead right now and it would have been all your stupid fault! Do you understand? Why do you think all of stay and have the rules that we do Saige? You think any of us like staying here? What the hell were you thinking when you snuck off like that? Do you know how much time we wasted looking for you? Do you even know what could have happened to you if Harry and the others were not decent?'

Saige squirmed and looked down. She didn't think of any of those things. Just herself.

'Look at me!' Thomas caught her chin and forced her to look up at him. 'Enough talking. Take off your pants.'

Saige hesitated. She was immediately yanked up, turned around and spanked hard. 'I said take off your pants right now!'

Saige pulled down her tracks and rubbed her behind at the same time. Tears started going down her cheeks as she realized the trouble she was in.

Thomas then unbuckled his belt. Sliding it out of the loops, Saige looked at him almost like he was moving in slow motion. Her eyes went big with the shock of what she knew was about to happen.

Pushing her onto her bed so that she lay across it on her stomach, Thomas put his left hand on her lower back to keep her down. He lifted his right hand and brought the belt down hard.

'Owwwwwwch!', Saige screeched out loud.

Everyone outside the tent could hear what was going on.

Not letting up, Thomas whipped her across her bottom fast and hard. After the tenth time he stopped. Saige was beyond screaming and was clutching the sheets while crying and trying to get out of Thomas's grasp.

He pulled her up and had her stand in front of him while he traded places and sat down on the edge of the bed. She instinctively put one hand behind her to rub out the sting and the other on his knee.

'Go stand in the corner over there Saige'. He gently pushed her towards the wall of the tent. 'When I call you in ten minutes, I want you to tell me why you think you are getting spanked, understand?'

She nodded before he whacked her again.

'Use words Saige. Do you understand?'

'Yes!' she yelled angrily. There it was. Her stubborn attitude.

Thomas took a deep breath. He had to keep calm and not lose him temper even more.

'You say, "Yes Sir" from now on, and lose the attitude. Ten minutes'.

Thomas sat on the bed and watched. He had to do this the right way

. Even though he was wasting valuable time and could have been doing something else.

Saige rubbed her bottom and moved uncomfortably back and forth.

'You better be doing some thinking Saige'.

Ten minutes later he called her.

'Okay, now you want to tell me why you are here right now, getting disciplined?'

Saige kept her eyes on his.

'Because I ran away and put everyone in danger?'

'Are you asking me or telling me'?

'I'm answering you'.

'Anything else?'

Saige shrugged her shoulders.

'What about your attitude and screaming at the top of your lungs and fighting with Newt when I told him to put you in the pit?'

'I don't like the pit', Saige whispered and looked down.

'Well if you hate the pit so much, why do you keep putting yourself in there?'

Again the shrugging.

'Here's what we're going to do Saige. Every day after your chores, you are going to come into the council tent and stay there until dinner time. You are grounded from going anywhere else. Understood?'

She didn't answer.

Thomas didn't waste any time and pulled her across his knee.

Spank! Spank! Spank!.

'What was that? I didn't hear you.'

Rubbing her behind, she said, 'Yes….Sir'.

Thomas put her back down on her feet. Holding her shoulders he looked straight in her eyes and said, 'From now on, I don't want to see any attitude coming from you. Understand? Someone tells you to do something, you do it. No complaining and no slacking off. If I hear any more complaints about you Saige, next time you won't be sitting for a month. Got it?'

'Yes Sir'.

'Good! Now go to bed and get some rest.' he gave her a quick hug and got up.

Thomas walked back to the Comm Tent, with everyone watching. Some even patted his back as he walked past them and congratulated him on finally disciplining the brat because she had wasted so much of their time.

Saige on the other hand lay on her stomach and tried to get some sleep. But she couldn't help thinking about her new life here in the Ridge.

In some ways, Thomas was slowly replacing her heart with the older brother she had lost. She never told anyone about that.


End file.
